New Delhi : Canada-based water management solutions provider Clearford Water Systems has said its Indian subsidiary Clearford India Pvt Ltd has signed contracts for two new system installations for villages in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

In the second half ended December 2018, the company had also announced commissioning of two industrial wastewater systems and the signing of another project at an industrial site in Gujarat.

The company said design work is underway for the project in Alwa village in Gujarat after the first work order for Phase 1 was issued by L&T subsidiary L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering Ltd in August 2018. The complete design-build project for a Clearford One sanitation system is being funded through corporate-social responsibility (CSR) initiative to improve public health in the village.

When all phases are complete, the wastewater system will serve over 1200 people in the village outside Vadodara. Clearford will provide end-to-end wastewater servicing for the community.

The second new project is in rural Tamil Nadu, where Clearford will deliver improved sanitation for 130 people in Rangapuram Colony in Poondi village through a CSR partnership of the Murugappa Group’s Cholamandalam Investment & Finance Company Ltd with The Voice Foundation, a local Indian entity of the Christian Children’s Fund of Canada.

Both projects will include wastewater collection and treatment infrastructure with low-cost constructed wetland facilities providing final treatment to local agricultural reuse water quality standards. The Clearford One system is designed to be operated by trained local people with minimal electricity usage, making it a sustainable model for sanitation in rural India.

“We are pleased to see the Clearford One system gain continued traction in the Indian market with the implementation of a larger village project in Gujarat, where the first Clearford One installation successfully demonstrated the value and performance of the technology for sustainable village sanitation,” said Clearford president & CEO Kevin Loiselle.

“The Poondi project establishes another Clearford demonstration site, now in the South India region where there is a well-documented need for sanitation solutions in rural communities", he added.

The Ottawa-headquartered company is also looking to expand its footprint in India in the commercial and industrial segments.

“A second wastewater project has been signed with Hilti Manufacturing India Pvt Ltd and a third is being discussed following the success of the first installation for on-site treatment and beneficial reuse of wastewater from toilet and washroom facilities at the company’s plant in Navsari, Gujarat,” said Loiselle.

Clearford had installed a similar system earlier in 2018 at the McCain Foods (India) plant in Mehsana district in Gujarat.

“Clearford continues to pursue several advanced opportunities for industrial site wastewater systems across India as these operations seek out low cost solutions for reusing water and reducing their environmental footprint,” said Loiselle.

Expressing enthusiasm over Clearford’s recent progress in India, he said, “We expect to continue gaining momentum in the Indian market as these new projects are completed in 2019, and as deeper strategic relationships are developed with India’s business and philanthropic communities".

Water is one of the world’s gravest risks, according to the Global Risks Report published earlier this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. And the situation is actually worse than it might seem at first glance.